5-8-2023 (MANILA) The wreckage of a Cessna trainer plane that crashed in Apayao has been located, and the bodies of its two passengers were recovered in Sitio Matad, Barangay Salvacion in Luna, Apayao on Thursday.
The two fatalities have been identified as pilot instructor Capt. Edzel John Lumbao and pilot student Anshum Rajkular Konde, an Indian national.
A joint search operation was conducted by two platoons from the 5th Infantry Battalion, personnel from the Philippine National Police, and members of the provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
The ill-fated aircraft had gone missing shortly after taking off from the Laoag International Airport at 12:16 p.m. on Tuesday. Its destination was the Tuguegarao Airport, after conducting a “touch and go” activity at Cauayan airport in Isabela.
Responding to the incident, a team from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board is now present at the crash site.
CAAP spokesman Eric Apolonio highlighted the alarming frequency of aircraft accidents in the country this year, with five incidents recorded since January, two of which involved Cessna planes.
The first Cessna plane crash occurred at Maconacon airport in Isabela on January 24. On February 18, another Cessna plane crashed in Camalig town in Albay. Later, on March 1, an ambulance helicopter went missing in Balabac, Palawan. More recently, on July 28, a helicopter operated by the Philippine Adventist Medical Aviation Services crash-landed in a banana plantation in Sitio Babahagon in Lantapan, Bukidnon.
